WORKING PAPER SERIES

The Asia-Pacific Forestry Sector Outlook Study is being
undertaken under the auspices of the Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission.

This report comes under Workplan Number C16.

INFORMATION
NOTE ON ASIA-PACIFIC FORESTRY SECTOR OUTLOOK STUDY

At its sixteenth session held in Yangon, Myanmar, in January 1996, the
Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission, which has membership open to all governments
in the Asia-Pacific region, decided to carry out an outlook study for
forestry with horizon year 2010. The study is being coordinated by FAO
through its regional office in Bangkok and its Headquarters in Rome, but
is being implemented in close partnership with governments, many of which
have nominated national focal points.

The scope of the study is to look at the main external and sectoral developments
in policies, programmes and institutions that will affect the forestry
sector and to assess from this the likely direction of its evolution and
to present its likely situation in 2010. The study involves assessment
of current status but also of trends from the past and the main forces
which are shaping those trends and then builds on this to explore future
prospects.

Working papers have been contributed or commissioned on a wide range
of topics. They fall under the following categories: country profiles,
selected in-depth country or sub-regional studies and thematic studies.
Working papers are prepared by individual authors or groups of authors
on their own professional responsibility; therefore, the opinions expressed
in them do not necessarily reflect the views of their employers, the governments
of the Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission or of the Food and Agriculture
Organization. In preparing the substantive report to be presented at the
next session of the Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission early in 1998, material
from these working papers will be an important element but will be blended
and interpreted alongside a lot of other material.

Working papers are being produced and issued as they arrive. Some effort
at uniformity of presentation is being attempted but the contents are
only minimally edited for style or clarity. FAO welcomes from readers
any information which they feel would be useful to the study on the subject
of any of the working papers or on any other subject that has importance
for the Asia-Pacific forestry sector. Such material can be mailed to the
contacts given below from whom further copies of these working papers,
as well as more information on the Asia-Pacific Forestry Sector Study,
can be obtained: